Class AA Title Contender Series: Breck
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Breck won the Breakdown Summer State Tournament this past June convincingly. Against the best Class AA teams in the state and most teams had their key guys. Breck became a top Class AA contender at that point, and then they…
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Continue ReadingBreck won the Breakdown Summer State Tournament this past June convincingly. Against the best Class AA teams in the state and most teams had their key guys. Breck became a top Class AA contender at that point, and then they added Daniel Freitag Daniel Freitag 6'1" | PG Breck | 2024 State #142 Nation MN .
Key Wins in 22-23 (19-9): Chisholm, Blake (x2), Redwood Valley, Crosby-Ironton, Redwood Valley, Jordan, Big Lake
Oops: Minnehaha Academy (x2), Deer River, PEM, Holy Family, Providence Academy, Apple Valley, New Life Academy, Maranatha Christian
Moving On: Breck graduated two: Waziri Lawal and Will Walker III. Both had nice careers at Breck with Lawal being the team’s second leading scorer last year. Walker averaged eight a game. They were nice players for a 19 win team and they will be missed as student athletes, but the transfers in and the improving returning players will fill their spots just fine.
Returning Starters (3). Hanif Muhammad was one of the stories of the past winter and the 17u season which in turn has led to him being a first team Class AA preseason all state player. He scored 16.5 points a game for Breck last year leading the team and this past 17u season he led Real Phenom to an impressive final ranking of 4th in the state! Hanif is now a senior. JP Musoke JP Musoke 6'6" | SF Breck | 2026 State MN and Miles Newton Miles Newton 6'5" | SF Breck | 2025 State MN are forwards who both started last year as underclassmen. The 6-foot-5 Musoke is now a sophomore and he scored eight points a season ago while Newton is now a 6-foot-3 junior and he averaged 9.5 points last year. Newton had a nice 16u season with Howard Pulley in 2023.
Reserves Playing a Bigger Role. Skilled and strong forward Kevin Armstrong II Kevin Armstrong II 6'6" | SG Breck | 2024 State MN was the team’s third leading scorer a season at just under ten points a game. At 6-foot-5 Armstrong is coming off a standpoint 17u year with the Minnesota Heat . Now sophomore Muaath Muhammad had as surprising of a previous winter as Hanif did. In fact, as a freshman scoring 6.5 points a game handling the ball off the bench, it might have been one of the bigger freshman surprises in the metro when it comes to winning teams. We expect Muaath to have a strong sophomore year after he was so good in the Summer State Tournament.
Potentials from the JV. Based on the numbers I’m guessing junior Teddy Koch and sophomore Carter Steinbeck Carter Steinbeck 6'7" | C Breck | 2026 State MN played varsity and JV last season. They looked to be in that 8th/9th man role on varsity while also getting time with the JV. Carter should be able to help a lot on varsity giving them a 6-foot-7 strong big in the post to battle against opposing size. Seniors Michael Sweeny, Max Aronson, and Dylan Luebke were all on the JV last year and will look to add depth.
New to the Varsity program. It doesn’t get much bigger than adding Daniel Freitag Daniel Freitag 6'1" | PG Breck | 2024 State #142 Nation MN , a Wisconsin commit who averaged 28.5 points per game for Class AAAA Bloomington Jefferson as a junior. Daniel is a nationally ranked explosive guard who scored in every which way imaginable last season and now he is going to do that for a Breck team that was already deep and versatile. Breck was a top three or four team in Class AAAA without Daniel. With him the Mustangs are the preseason favorite. Breck also added Waleed Muhammed, a guard that scored ten points a game at Higher Ground Academy last year as an 8th grader. He will be a freshman for Breck.
Final Thoughts. I really don’t have much to say as what I have laid out before you says it all. This team is deep, experienced, explosive, talented, long and good sized for a Class AA team. Lake City, Holy Family and Albany are all contenders (as are likely Eden Valley-Watkins, Esko and Caledonia) but none of those teams have an explosive player like Freitag. None of those teams have the amount of quickness that Breck has in the backcourt in numbers. None of these teams have as many agile guys at 6-foot-4 or better like Breck. And none of those teams have the depth that Breck does. What some of them do have though is experience playing together. A developed chemistry. With Breck having players getting older and Freitag coming in, they do have to develop a chemistry to be as good as they expect to be. That said, it looked like the group did that before Daniel got there, it’s likely they can do it with him.